Disclaimer: Amphibia is owned by Matt Brady and Disney. This is a fan-based story purely for fun.


Chapter 21:

Gill-Behemoth's Scale

The likelihood of the weapon stash's existence was becoming less and less likely the more Sprig searched every nook and cranny that he could find in the entire museum. Admittedly, he was just jumping into conclusion over its existence based on a single passing comment from Frog Soos, but he was really betting on getting his hands on it to turn the tide of the battle against the Gill-Behemoth.

In his search for the elusive stash, he eventually found himself in the gift shop, the very last place within the museum, barring the one where Gwendy and the Gill-Behemoth are located. He was not getting much hope in finding it inside of the shop, even as he looked around the place as much as he could.

"Hah…! Come on, weapon stash! Where the flip are you?!" he panted just as he started to walk through the shop.

He scanned the room many times, but no matter how hard he tried to look, all he could find were souvenirs, shirts with a question mark, heads of assorted creatures mounted on walls, anything except the stash. It also did not help that the room was dark, so it was even more difficult to find what he was looking for. If the weapon stash truly existed, then the Curator was really good at hiding it where no ordinary person could find no matter where they look.

They were running out of time. If things kept going at that pace, Gwendy would surely become either food for the beast or a messy stain on the floor, courtesy of the monster's giant foot. Not to mention that it would escape the hut and start attacking the whole town in its rage.

Sprig quickened his pace, walking around the room and looking every inch of it as much as his eyes could allow him. But in his haste…

THUD!

Sprig yelped as he tripped on a stack of boxes and fell to the floor, bringing the boxes down with him where they spilled their contents all over.

The green-clad boy groaned and rubbed the sore part of his head, as he lifted himself up. He looked around himself to see what exactly he tripped on, until his eyes were drawn towards a peculiar item. He reached out and grabbed the object in his hand before pulling it towards him and examining it closely.

He wondered if it could be a viable tool in helping turn the fight in their favour. He always thought of it as a weapon, but aside from a brief, sudden experience with it, it was difficult to see if it was even a weapon to begin with.

But time is of the essence. For all he knew, that tool could be his next best shot at gaining the upper hand.


CRASH!

"Urgh!"

Despite her best efforts in dodging the beast's attacks and countering whenever the opportunity presented itself, Gwendy eventually got hit by the Gill-Behemoth's kick and was sent crashing into the wall. The impact of the crash broke apart a big part of the wall and the pieces collapsed on top of her.

A moment had passed before Gwendy barely managed to crawl herself out of the piles of broken pieces of the wall, coughing a couple of times in the process. Her body sustained quite a bit of damage, which was reflected from the tattered state of her clothes, among other things.

She lifted her head up and saw the giant beast slowly approaching her step by step, as she was still the target of its aggression.

"Dang…! What is your skin made of?" she asked, barely being able to stand up.

The Gill-Behemoth's only response was to let out a hot breath in her way, shaking the floor beneath her with each step and the intensity getting stronger the closer it was to her.

"Hah…! Definitely bit off more than I can chew… Dad warned me about choosing my battles carefully…" Gwendy remarked, wiping some dirt off of her face. "I guess this is what I get for putting on a cool face for everyone almost all the time."

She realized that if she continued to fight the Gill-Behemoth like that, she would face a devastating loss that she might not come back from. Even so, she had to keep fighting as much as she could, not just for the museum's sake, but for the entire town's sake. After all, if ever her dearest friends come back sometime in the future, she wanted them to see that the town that they hold dear is the same as when they left it.

With renewed determination, she took a couple of defiant steps forward, mirroring the beast's movements. After wiping off more dirt off of her face, she took an offensive stance, ready to strike at the monster despite the overwhelming odds going against her.

The Gill-Behemoth continued to move towards her, its enormous eyes aimed squarely at her. It was nearly within attacking range from her.

"You leave her and the Curiosity Hut alone, you huge… frog… mutant thing!"

At the sound of a voice from an unknown party, the Gill-Behemoth turned itself around and caught sight of a large, turquoise frog standing some distance behind it, carrying a big bag over his shoulder.

"Soos!" Gwendy shouted, surprised to see that her coworker came back to help even though she herself believed that it would not be the case. "… Wait, why're you wearing Stan's hat?"

"I'm not letting you keep hurting my friend, or destroying everything that I love!" Frog Soos yelled at the beast. "If you're gonna keep at it, you'll have to go through me! The new Curator of the museum!"

"Hold up. New Curator?"

"You're not dealing with an average handyman anymore! So come and get a piece of me, Mr. Gill-Behemoth!" taunted the large frog while he shook his fist at it.

The Gill-Behemoth stared at Frog Soos for a bit, seemingly unimpressed by him. Deeming it as a non-threat, it slowly turned itself back at Gwendy to continue what it had planned for her.

"Ha! Bad move, dude!" he said with a smirk. "Time to blow you away like a dandelion!"

Frog Soos proceeded to spin himself around as much as he could while swinging the large bag that he was holding along. After spinning around for a while, he let go of the bag, as the momentum sent it flying towards the beast's head.

Spotting the flying object in the corner of its big eyes, the Gill-Behemoth turned its head just in time for the bag to hit it squarely between the eyes.

"LIKE A DANDELION!"

BOOM!

The bag suddenly exploded right in the monster's face, creating a huge cloud of smoke that covered the entirety of its head.

"Yes!" Frog Soos cheered while pumping his fist after seeing that he managed to hit the creature with the bag full of smoke bombs. "Mr. Ponds might kill me for using all of the smoke bombs at once, but it's worth it if it's to protect the museum!"

The cloud of smoke expanded in size with each passing second, to the point of filling and obscuring the whole room.

Frog Soos and Gwendy both began to cough from inhaling the smoke once they were envelopped by the growing cloud.

"O-okay, maybe this is working out too well." Frog Soos coughed, covering his nose with his mouth

"Yeah, no kidding!" Gwendy said while trying to fan the smoke away from her face. "So what's your next move, Soos?"

"Uh, well… Um… I dunno, dude." he stammered.

"Wait, you serious?"

"Sorry! I-I didn't think that far ahead!" he sheepishly explained himself. "That last attack was more of a spur of the moment, and I was hoping that it'll keep going until we beat that monster! I dunno what to do next!"

"Well, try and think of something! Now's a really good time to figure that part out!"

Frog Soos frantically looked around, trying to think what he should do next to combat the beast. However, it was difficult for him to do so when the smoke was obscuring the whole room, preventing him from seeing things that might give him some ideas. Not to mention that he was in a state of panic that made it harder for him to formulate his thoughts properly.

While he was trying to figure out his next move, the smoke was starting to dissipate in a shockingly rapid rate. As he started to see things a bit more clearly, he could make out the giant silhouette of the Gill-Behemoth from a short distance.

At first, the creature seemed to remain still since the bag of smoke bombs struck it. Then, after it snarled, the silhouette moved like it was turning itself towards the direction of Frog Soos before it somehow decreased in size.

When the smoke had faded to the point that the inside of the room became a bit more visible, the turquoise frog was met with the sight of the beast crouching down, with its eyes aimed solely at him, its toes firmly gripping onto the floor, and its body slightly leaning back.

"Uh oh."

The moment that Frog Soos realized what it was about to do, the Gill-Behemoth lunged itself forward, widely opening its huge mouth lined with fangs as it was rapidly closing the gap between it and the large frog.

Frog Soos screamed as he vainly tried to protect himself by ducking down and putting his arms up in front of his face while shutting his eyes closed, too paralyzed with fear to move out of the way.

However, for a split second, he felt a foot on his shoulder that then propelled itself off of him. When he lifted his head up, he was met with the sight of an odd, tanned-skin person moving in midair towards the lunging beast while pulling the sword in her hand back.

"Anne?!"

Anne let out a battle cry as she thrusted the sword forward, stabbing the Gill-Behemoth in the forehead. The resulting impact caused the monster to veer slightly off-course, nearly missing the turquoise frog, and it crashed and slide across the floor to a complete stop, inadvertently clearing most of the smoke out of the room, except for the area where Gwendy was.

"Hah…! Everyone alright?!" The human girl asked as she looked over the beast's fallen body while standing on its head, her hands still on her sword that was lodged in the creature's head.

"Dude! You came back? And… You're not covered in wax anymore!" Frog Soos said, finally noticing that her body was indeed no longer petrified in wax, barring a few tiny, broken and melted pieces of the material still latching onto her in a few areas.

"Yeah, and about time, too! Looks like I got here before things get really bad." Anne noted, relieved to see that Gwendy and Frog Soos were still in one piece. She looked around the room and noticed that something was amiss. "Hey, have you guys seen Sprig?"

"Wait, I thought that he was with you? What happened?"

"Sprig went back inside to find something to help you fight this thing. I thought that he might be with you guys already before I came in." she explained the situation. "Well, I guess it's a good thing that he hasn't join in yet, 'cause this fight is pretty much done!"

The smoke was completely cleared out, allowing Gwendy to see the room clearly and in turn, witness the Gill-Behemoth's felled body with Anne standing on its head.

She let out a frightened gasp. "Anne! Get off of that thing quick!"

"Relax, Gwendy!" Anne reassured her with a smile. "The Gill-Behemoth's already toast. Got a sword in its brain and everything."

"That's the thing!" Gwendy said. "Its skin is, like, really flipping hard to cut through! My hatchet couldn't put a dent into it! Heck, I don't think your sword did anything either!"

"What?"

Before Anne could make sense of what Gwendy was warning her about, the Gill-Behemoth's eyes suddenly shifted towards her, startling her.

Then, it stood up from the floor as if it was not harm in the first place, bringing the human girl along with it.

"Oh geez."

The first thing that it did after standing up was shaking its head furiously, allowing the sword to fall off since it was not lodged in its head in the first place and trying to do the same to Anne.

The brown-haired girl yelled as she tried to hang onto its head to avoid being shaken off.

"Hang on, dude! I'm coming to help!" Frog Soos shouted before he jumped on one of the Gill-Behemoth's legs and started bashing his fists against it in another spur of the moment.

The monster continued to shake its head as much as it could, but Anne was surprisingly still hanging on to dear life. It stopped its action once it was clear that removing the human girl would not be as simple of a task than expected. Stopping its head did allow it to notice the large frog climbing on its leg and attacking it.

In retaliation, it moved its leg back, then swung it forward to launch Frog Soos off and send him flying straight towards Gwendy.

The flannel-wearing frog could not react fast enough before Frog Soos crashed right into her and they both fell back into the broken wood pile behind them.

Once it had dealt with the large frog, it set its sights on Anne who was still hanging onto its head. With a snarl, it squatted down to the floor and started to build up something from within as evident of its body shaking subtly.

"Wait, what's it doing?" Anne asked, scared to know what it was about to do.

The Gill-Behemoth leaped high off the floor, smashing through the ceiling of the room all the way to the roof, creating an enormous hole in the building.

Hop Pop and Polly, who remained outside of the museum even after they managed to remove the wax off of Anne, were left in a state of shock after witnessing the giant creature jumping high into the sky from the hut, then landing back down to the ground some distance away, shaking the ground in the process.

"Dear frog! That monster just escaped the museum!" Hop Pop exclaimed. "What happened to the others?! Are they still okay?!"

"Hop Pop! Up there!" Polly said while pointing to the sky above the museum. "Is that who I think it is?"

Following the direction that the tadpole was pointing at, the elderly frog spotted an unknown object slowly falling down towards the building. He squinted his eyes in order to improve his vision, and once the image of the falling object became more clearer, he screamed of horror after recognizing who it was.

"AHH! ANNE!"

Anne was briefly knocked out when the beast smashed its head all the way through the roof with her on it. When the monster began to fall back to the ground, she fell off of its head in her unconscious state before her body proceeded to slowly fall down as well.

She regained consciousness when she heard Hop Pop screaming her name. After blinking her eyes a few times and looking around herself briefly, she realized the position that she was in and, with her body angled downwards, looked up to see the floor getting closer and closer as she was falling rapidly.

"OH CRUD!" She yelled as she closed her eyes and put her hands up in a futile attempt to cushion her fall.

BANG!

Suddenly, a hook attached to a rope was launched in an upward angle, aimed at the high point of one of the pine trees behind the museum. As soon as the hook latched onto the trunk of the tree, someone was zipping through the air, following the rope's trajectory.

Anne was caught in the middle of her fall. Once she realized that she was no longer falling, she opened her eyes and was met with the sight of the person who stopped her fall and was pulling her securely in their free arm.

"Sprig?!"

Sprig flashed a prideful grin at her once she recognized that it was him who saved her.

The moment was short-lived, however, as he ended up crashing themselves right into the tree face-first. They then proceed to slide down before falling to the ground hard on their backs next to each other.

"Oww…! Yep, this hurts just as much as last time…!" Sprig groaned as he nursed his injured face.

The hook unlatched itself from the tree and fell on the boy's head for his troubles, followed by the rope that landed on him in a spiral manner.

"Sprig! You saved me!" Anne exclaimed as she sat up from the ground and looked at her best friend next to her, surprised by his sudden appearance at the last second. "But how in the world did you…?"

Looking over him, she took notice of an object that he was holding in his hand which seemed to be connected to the hook and rope.

"Wait, is this a grappling hook?" she asked. "Where did you get your hands on this?"

"You mean this thing?" Sprig said as he sat up from the ground himself, letting the hook and rope slide off of his body. He lifted the mini hook cannon up to give the human girl a better look at it. "I found it back at the gift shop. It kinda looks like one of those gun things from your cop shows, so it got me pretty curious."

"Huh. That's pretty convenient." Anne noted. "Well, it definitely helped me out big time. I would've been a big pile of meat on the floor if you hadn't show up in time. Thanks, buddy."

The two humans exchanged smiles with one another, as Anne stood up from the ground and helped Sprig get up on his own feet.

Meanwhile, still standing in the middle of the town plaza, Hop Pop and Polly sighed with relief once they saw that Sprig rescued Anne in a nick of time.

ROOOOOOAAAAAAARRR!

Startled by the ferocious cry, they were quickly reminded that the threat of the Gill-Behemoth was still there. And to make matters worse, the monster was standing right outside of the museum, looking around itself in a new, unfamiliar territory.

"Hop Pop, this is bad!" Polly said. "That thing is gonna tear down the whole town in a second!"

"You're right, Polly!" Hop Pop said. "But if neither Anne nor Gwendy can take it down fast enough, what else can we possible do? At this rate, we might need to evacuate the whole town before the monster is finally slain!"

"But everyone's probably still asleep! How are we supposed to wake everyone up and get them out of town before that thing gets to them?"

"I'm afraid to say that we most likely won't save everyone." the elderly frog stated sombrely. "But better to save the most that we can than to lose all of them in the process. Let's go before it's-!"

Hop Pop suddenly felt something touching his shoulder, causing him to yelp and jump out of fright.

"Hop Pop?!" Polly spoke in alarm, as she took notice of the hand that suddenly lay on her grandfather's shoulder.

She came to his rescue by hopping and headbutting the hand off him.

"Back off, bub!" she threatened the person whose hand belonged to with a glare. "It's been a really long night, and if anything or anyone tries to scare us one more time, I'm gonna lose it for real!"

The elderly frog quickly turned towards the stranger behind him and was taken by surprise when he recognized who they were dealing with.

"… You?!"


Removing the last remaining debris off of his friend, Frog Soos managed to pull Gwendy out of the wood pile that they crashed into moments ago, helping her stand up in the process.

"Are you okay, dude?" he asked out of concern.

"I think so. Thanks, Soos." Gwendy replied, which was followed by a cough. "Hrm…! Hey, where did that monster go?"

"I dunno." Frog Soos said. "When I got out, both Anne and the Gill-Behemoth were gone. And then there's this big hole in the ceiling up here."

Both of them lifted their heads up to see the aforementioned hole which was about the size of the creature. It did not take long for them to put two and two together as to where the Gill-Behemoth had disappeared to.

"Come on, Soos! We need to get outside fast!"

The two museum employees both sprinted away to exit the building. Along the way, Frog Soos came across a sword laying on the floor, presumably belonging to Anne. He decided to pick up the sword and bring it with them, just in case.

Once they left the hut, they took a quick look around the plaza in search for the beast. Sure enough, the giant creature was found standing right besides the museum, looking like it was trying to make sense of where it was.

"Not good!" Gwendy remarked in alarm. "We gotta deal with that thing before it starts attacking the town!"

"Gwendy, look over there!" Frog Soos exclaimed while pointing at the direction behind the hut. "I think I saw Anne and Sprig!"

Gwendy looked at where Frog Soos was pointing and saw the two humans emerging out of the woods from behind the museum, looking relatively fine, much to their relief.

Sprig and Anne both glanced at the Gill-Behemoth, worried about what it might do next now that it escaped the building.

"Sprig," Anne spoke to the boy. "Please tell me that you found the guy's weapon stash."

"I-I tried!" Sprig replied. "But I couldn't find squat, even when I looked at every nook and cranny of the whole place! I don't know if it even exists anymore!"

"So we're left with nothing to fight off that monster?" she asked, troubled by that fact.

"If only we can just find the Curator and get him to tell us where he's keeping those weapons…"

"Well, scratch that for now!" Anne said, as she got into a stance in preparation of resuming their fight. "We need to take it down before everyone else gets hurt!"

"R-right!" Sprig nodded as he got into a stance himself, though he remained uncertain of their chances at winning the fight.

But before they began to tackle at the beast, everyone in the surrounding area were caught off guard by a loud voice.

"HEY! YOU UGLY, OVERSIZED, POOR EXCUSE OF A FROG!"

The two humans, two frogs and the giant monster all shifted their gazes towards the direction of the voice.

It was there that they saw the suit-wearing orange frog standing at a far distance away from them, about where the town gate is located.

"Stan?!" Gwendy shouted, shocked to see their boss out there.

"Yeah, I'm talking to you, butterface!" Stan said as he threw a finger at the monster that he was addressing to. "Remember me? I'm the guy who gave you a limited time spotlight in my museum! Not that you deserve it in the first place!"

The Gill-Behemoth's eyes twitched with anger as it recognized its captor.

"You know, I used to think that you were the toughest one out of the bunch, considering your size and all! Until I fought you, that is! It makes me laugh when it turned out that you're just a gigantic wimp!"

The creature snarled, as the eyepatch-wearing frog's taunt was getting on its nerves.

"What the heck is he doing?" Gwendy asked, reacting in disbelief at whatever he was trying to do. She turned her head towards the turquoise frog. "Soos, weren't you supposed to take him somewhere safe?"

"Sorry, dude!" Frog Soos apologized. "I might have ended up taking him to the attic while we were trying to escape the first time around. But in my defence, I thought that he already left town by now."

"Hey, what's the deal with your broken fang? You had an accident and fell on your face or something?" Stan continued his taunting of the beast. "Oh wait! I remember! I was the one who broke it in the first place! Punched the tip right off like it was nothing! How pathetic is that?!"

The Gill-Behemoth widened its mouth to show more of its fangs, growling the more he was making fun of it.

"Haha! You may be big, but you certainly have small plans!" he chuckled. "I guess I shouldn't expect much from someone who used his big feet to compensate for his teeny-weeny little arms! No wonder I caught you so easily in the first place! Hahaha!"

The Gill-Behemoth let out a furious roar, crouching down as its claws gripped onto the ground while leaning its body back a bit. Then, it lunged itself forward, trying to catch its captor in its large maw.

But since the distance between them were large, Stan easily hopped out of the way of its attack, escaping through the town entrance and into the woods further down the road.

The enormous creature quickly stood up, then proceeded to run after him, breaking through the gate in the process.

"Stan, what in the name of frog are you doing?!" Gwendy yelled, as she seriously could not believe what had transpired in that moment.

"We gotta go after him! Come on!" Frog Soos said, as he ran to follow their boss and the monster from behind, accompanied by the long-haired frog.

Once they saw that everyone was going into the woods, Anne and Sprig both exchanged looks with each other and nodded before they ran after everyone else themselves.


The Gill-Behemoth had been smashing its way through the woods for a while. The trees obscured its sights, preventing it from getting a clear view of its fleeing prey. Its only course of action was to run through what was in front of it in order to claim what it deserved.

Eventually, it entered a wide-opened area in the middle of the woods. It looked around and saw nothing but a large plain with a few patches of grass here and there. All the trees were located on the outskirt of the wide area, meaning that there was nothing blocking the way.

It searched aimlessly for the source of its torment, until it spotted a conspicuous individual standing right in the middle of the area. It only needed to look at the fez resting on the head of the lone person for it to immediately recognize him.

It wasted no time preparing its attack, squatting down to the ground, gripping the earthly soil tightly, and leaning its body back.

Sprig, Anne, Gwendy and Frog Soos managed to catch up to the beast. But by the time that they arrived, it was too late to stop it.

The Gill-Behemoth launched forward, roaring as it opened its mouth wide while it was rapidly approaching the orange frog.

"Mr. Ponds! Watch out!" Frog Soos alerted their boss of the monster's attack.

Stan did not budge from where he was standing, much to everyone's confusion and horror.

Then, the Gill-Behemoth finally caught its captor in its jaws, sinking its fangs into his flesh. It lifted its head up with the frog still in its mouth, and with a single chomp, it bit Stan in two, letting his lower half fall off.

"STAN!"

Gwendy and Frog Soos were horrified as they witnessed the demise of their longtime boss, rendering their efforts into protecting him all for naught.

Anne and Sprig also watched in shock, unsure of what they were supposed to do next.

The Gill-Behemoth took its time savouring the taste of its prey, satisfied that it finally delivered retribution against him.

Then, it stopped chewing, as it found that something was amiss. The suit-wearing frog's flesh did not taste like any ordinary flesh. In fact, he tasted awful, if not a bit bland. And he felt thicker and stickier as well.

It looked down at Stan's lower half laying beneath its feet and noticed that it was not creating a pool of blood below. In fact, upon closer examination, the colour of the chomped-off section of his lower body was brown instead of red. And the body itself looked more… waxier than it remembered.

"Wait a sec." Anne spoke as she peered at the lower body from where they were standing. "Is it me or does it look less like the Curator and more like his wax statue replica?"

Everyone else took a look themselves and realized that the human girl was onto something. Once they noticed the inconsistencies surrounding Stan's lower half, they came to a conclusion that it was not really Stan, but a wax figure depicting his likeness.

"Does that mean… Stan is safe?" Frog Soos asked, feeling a bit relieved.

"But where the heck is Stan?" Gwendy wondered.

As the Gill-Behemoth stood there, confused over what it just ate, it failed to notice that it was being watched from afar.

Beyond the outskirts of the wide-opened area, the purple tadpole was observing the beast's movements with the help of a telescope in her hands.

"The monster took the bait!" she relayed the information to her entire group. "Hurry up, Hop Pop! That thing's gonna escape if you keep dragging things out!"

"I'm doing my darn best here, Polly!" Hop Pop said, struggling to lift the large barrel up in his hands. "Hnnngh! Frogdangit, how much does this barrel weigh?! I'll end up breaking my spine trying to lift this!"

"Give it here!"

Hop Pop's struggles with the barrel came to an end when a suit-wearing frog arrived and lifted the barrel for him like it was nothing.

"Sheesh! I know that you're getting old, but this is pathetic!" Stan remarked. "I almost regret asking for you country folks for some help! Well, at least we still got things going!"

Stan placed the barrel down on the bucket of the catapult, which was positioned prior to the Gill-Behemoth's arrival.

"I don't know what you're planning, Mr. Curator." Hop Pop spoke, glaring cautiously at the eyepatch-wearing frog. "But if you think helping us fight against that beast will make us forget all about the atrocities that you have done to our family tonight, then you're sorely mistaken!"

"Look, you can grill me over my actions later!" Stan said. "We all wanna take down that thing, yeah? Then let's just do it already!"

He turned his attention towards the person standing next to the lever positioned besides the catapult's bucket.

"Hey, you old kook! Everything's all locked and loaded! You better not mess this up!"

"I'm Old Man McRibbit!" exclaimed the lanky, big-nosed and white-bearded green frog wearing brown, patched-up overalls and an old, brown hat. "'Bout time that I pull this darn, old contraption of mine out of the shed!"

"Uh, are we seriously gonna rely on a crazy old man's device?" Polly asked, having second thoughts about the plan. "Don't get me wrong! I'm down with using a catapult! But knowing that he built it is kinda worrying…"

"He may not look like it, but this guy's the smartest jerk in the whole town." Stan explained. "I wouldn't have gone to him if all the things that he built were big disasters. You're gonna have to trust him on this one."

"But can we really hit the beast like this? Even with all the trees that are in the way?" Hop Pop asked, concerned about the obstacles obstructing the path.

"Of course! He wouldn't have told us to put the catapult here if it wasn't gonna work!" Stan insisted.

He then turned his head towards the local kook.

"I mean… It's definitely gonna work, right?"

"Heck if I know!" McRibbit replied without hesitation. "I just feel like putting the old girl here! Didn't think of the trees or the wind or anything messing with the trajectory!"

"Are you pulling my leg?!"

"Well, one way to find out! Hehehehehe!" The beard man cackled as he pulled the lever down. "Fire in the hole!"

The arm of the catapult was swung vertically forward, launching the barrel off the bucket as it flew in an arc. It narrowly went past the trees, barely brushing against some of the branches in the process, and eventually emerged out of the woods and going towards the sky until it reached its high point. It then started to fall downwards, going towards the unsuspecting monster.

At the sound of an object falling from above, the Gill-Behemoth barely moved its head up before the barrel struck it right in its face, exploding into a brown, liquid mess that soaked the creature from head to toe.

"Direct hit!" Polly shouted while pumping her fist in the air.

The Gill-Behemoth cried in panic, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Not to mention that its vision was being blocked by the brown fluid, so it could not see where the attack came from.

But when it took a whiff of the solution that it was covered in, the smell was all too familiar to it. It realized that it was splashed with wax, and that would spell doom if it let it linger on its body.

In a state of panic, it blindly ran around the open plain, trying to remove the wax off as much as possible. But since the wax was quite viscous, getting rid of it proved to be a difficult task.

It felt the wax slowly starting to solidify on its body. Letting out a frightful cry, it randomly turned to one direction and began to charge forward, not knowing that it was moving towards Sprig, Anne, Gwendy and Frog Soos.

"Watch out, guys! It's running right at us!" Gwendy warned everyone.

"Wait, you think it's gonna keep charging this way? That's where Stony Gulch is!" Frog Soos shouted. "It's gonna trample the town if we leave it alone!"

"What're we gonna do?!" Sprig asked. "If we try to stop it ourselves, we're just gonna get knocked away!"

Anne gasped, as she just had an idea as to how to stop the charging creature.

"Sprig! Frog Soos! Get yourselves over there!" Anne told the two males, pointing them to a certain spot.

"Uh, okay! Sure!" Sprig nodded, unsure of what his best friend was getting at. He and Frog Soos both moved towards that one location.

"Gwendy, you and I are gonna go over there!" Anne said as she pointed at a different spot.

"You're the boss!" Gwendy shrugged as she followed the human girl's lead. Both girls moved to the location that Anne was talking about.

The two parties were in position, forming an empty space between them that was just wide enough to somewhat serve as a passage for the Gill-Behemoth to go through.

"Okay, Sprig! Shoot the grappling hook at me!" Anne instructed the orange-haired boy.

"You want me to do what?" Sprig asked, confused by her request.

"Just do it! Trust me!"

"O-okay! Here goes!"

He hastily aimed the grappling hook at the curly-haired girl and pulled the trigger, shooting the hook out with the rope attached to it.

After dodging the launched hook, Anne went and grabbed the rope once it fell to the ground.

"Alright, guys! This is how we're gonna do it!" she said. "On the count of three, we all pull the rope at the same time! Got it?"

At first, Sprig still had no idea what his best friend was planning. But once he briefly glanced at the giant beast running their way, he immediately understood her plan. He then nodded to her to show that he got it.

"Okay! Get ready, everybody!"

Anne gripped the rope tightly, while Gwendy positioned herself behind the human girl and took hold of the same rope. Meanwhile, Sprig firmly grasped the pistol with both hands, while Frog Soos had his arms around the boy from behind.

Anne observed the charging beast, trying to get the timing right.

"One… Two…"

The Gill-Behemoth was about to pass in-between the two groups.

"THREE!"

The two groups both pulled on the rope in direct opposition to one another, raising and tightening the rope in the process.

As the result, the Gill-Behemoth unwittingly tripped over the rope, falling forward and crashing into the ground hard.

The beast let out a terrified squeal, squirming along the ground in a pathetic attempt to stand up. Unfortunately for the creature, enough time had passed and the wax stiffened, putting its erratic movement to a halt.

The four of them watched the fallen body cautiously, noticing that the creature had completely stopped moving compared to what happened moments ago

"Did… Did we do it?" Frog Soos asked.

Wanting to confirm what was going on with it, they walked around the body, keeping a keen eye on it for any sign of sudden movements until they got to the front of its face. Once they saw that the the creature remained still, completely covered in the brown substance, it was safe for them to form a single conclusion about it.

The Gill-Behemoth was once again frozen in wax.

"I… I guess we really did it." Gwendy spoke, finally letting her body relax once it dawned on her that they defeated the monster.

"Kids!"

Anne and Sprig both heard Hop Pop's voice calling out to them. Turning their heads towards the direction of his voice, they saw the elderly frog and the purple tadpole running up to them. They were followed by an unknown beard frog.

"Hop Pop! Polly!" Anne shouted in relief, as the two humans ran to meet up with them midway through. "When did you guys get here? I thought that you were back in town, hiding from that thing!"

"Yeah, funny story about that." Polly said. "We got roped in to pull a scheme to take down that monster."

"Really? Who dragged you into this?"

As if on cue, a certain orange frog suddenly landed in-between the group and the frozen beast, catching everyone off-guard.

"Heh! Would you look at this?" Stan said with his hands on his hips, pleased to see that their hard work paid off. "Completely frozen in wax. Exactly as it should be. I still dunno how it got out the first time around, but it's not gonna screw things up anymore."

He turned his head towards the lanky frog.

"Glad I ran into you for help, you old kook. It might've been pretty bad if it weren't for your inventions that you somehow pulled out of your butt."

"Ah shucks! Always willing to lend a helping hand to Ford's pals!" McRibbit said, scratching his nose. "Welp! Looks like we're done here! Now if you'll excuse me, me and the wife are gonna spent some quality time together!"

McRibbit then picked up a small spider in his hands.

"Come on, wifey! Let's spin some webs around the house! Hehehehehe!

And so, the beard frog ran to parts unknown with his 'wife' in his arms, cackling all the way.

"Geez… You wouldn't know that this guy's got brains at first glance." Stan remarked. "Well, now that's over, how about we go and celebrate our victory over…"

When he turned towards the rest of the group, expecting smiles and whatnot, he instead mixed reactions from them.

The Plantar family were throwing hostile looks at the suit-wearing frog, obviously because he was responsible for putting them in danger in the first place.

While Gwendy and Frog Soos stared at him with worry, unsure of what he was going to do next, considering what happened a while ago.

"… Right. Here comes the awkward part…" Stan said, scratching the back of his head as he tried to figure out how he should approach it.

"Mr. Ponds…" Frog Soos spoke first, taking a couple of steps forward as he looked at his former boss with sadness in his eyes. "Are… Are you still going to leave the Curiosity Hut? After everything we've been through?"

Stan turned his attention to the handyman.

"I may be the new Curator now," the large frog continued, removing the fez from his head and kept hold of it in his hands as he looked down at it. "But… the museum wouldn't be as magical without you around. I… I dunno if I can live with that."

"Soos…"

"I mean, we can still work this out! Whatever's bothering you, we can make it better if we put our heads together!" Frog Soos pleaded. "S-so please, Mr. Ponds! You're like the closest thing to a dad to me! If you can just let us, we can-"

Gwendy placed a consoling hand on his shoulder.

"Soos… Give it a rest." she said sombrely. "Stan made it pretty clear that he rather skip town than give it to us straight. We can't change his mind, no matter what we do…"

"But Gwendy, I…" Frog Soos wanted to argue with her, but even he knew that she was speaking the truth. Nothing he can say would turn things around.

In the end, all he could do was nodding despondently.

"We'll try and keep the museum running ourselves. It's gonna be tough, but that's all we can do to keep the memories intact." Gwendy said, patting him on the shoulder. She then shifted her gaze towards the eyepatch-wearing frog, giving him a melancholic look. "… See you around, Stan."

She turned around and started to walk back towards town.

Frog Soos did the same and took a few steps in, before he remembered something. He went to Anne and pulled out a sword.

"Here you go, dude. You dropped it back at the hut."

"Thanks, Frog Soos. Really appreciate it." Anne expressed her thanks to the large frog, retrieving her sword from his hands.

Frog Soos simply nodded before he followed Gwendy back to town, still feeling sorrowful that they will have to part ways with Stan and take care of the museum without him.

"Hey, hold up just a minute!"

The two employees stopped and turned towards Stan when he suddenly called out to them.

"You guys are just gonna leave without giving me the chance to explain myself? If we were on the clock, I would have cut your pay for walking out on the job."

He attempted to make a joke to ease the tension, but Gwendy and Frog Soos still looked at him attentively without breaking into a smile.

He sighed, knowing that there was no point beating around the bush.

"Look," he spoke, rubbing the back of his neck. "I… I might have done some sleazy stuff this past year. And I won't pretend that my twin brother doesn't have something to do with it. But there's more to it than I let on…"

He slowly paced himself from side to side, trying to collect his thoughts on how to explain himself.

"I… I screwed up big time with my brother a lifetime ago. He was going to be accepted to a fancy school in Newtopia, and I might have blew his chances by being dumb…"

"So you were really jealous of your brother?" Gwendy assumed.

"Of course I wasn't jealous! That had nothing to do with it!" he rebuffed the long-haired girl's guess before he calmed himself down. "I… I didn't want to lose my brother. He and I were a dynamic duo since we were born. Always helping each other out to move on up in the world. Without him, I'm just garbage in the eyes of the world. The idea that we're going to split scared the snot outta me…"

Stan rubbed his hands together, as he kept recalling everything that lead to where they are.

"Ford and the rest of my family pretty much left me for dead after they figured out how I screwed things up for them. I was on my own for a long time, and I would've bite the dust if I hadn't found the Curiosity Hut out of sheer luck."

He looked at the direction of the town.

"Then the kids showed up. Made me feel like I have a family again. Like I meant something to them instead of being a complete nobody. I thought that things were finally looking up for me. Then…"

He let out another sigh, once he got to the crux of everything bad that occurred since the end of last summer.

"Then… Ford suddenly showed up and made me feel like a complete loser again. Always talking about himself and never asking me how I was doing. He even got the kids to like him faster than me. It's like… He was destroying every single hope I had in surviving this world."

"And that's when the wax statues came in…" Gwendy remarked.

"But if you didn't do this to get back at your bro, then why did you do it?" Frog Soos asked.

"I told you, Soos. I was scared out of my wits of being trash in the eyes of the world." Stan replied. "Look at Ford! On his own and he became a successful researcher just fine! If he can survive without me, then why can't I? He reminded me that I'm worthless, no good to anyone, and would've been a rotting skull in the middle of nowhere if I didn't get lucky. And… he messed with the kids' heads into thinking that I'm a complete loser, taking away the only family that I had left…"

Gwendy and Frog Soos both frowned, as what Stan said about Ford influencing Flipper and Schmabel had some truths to them. They still had doubts, but if the facts were all there in the first place…

"… At least, that's what I thought."

They glanced at each other, surprised by what he had just said.

"What do you mean?" Frog Soos asked.

Stan pulled out a letter from the inner pocket of his jacket.

"When I was at the attic, I found this letter from Schmabel. Hidden inside her scrapbook, of all things." he explained. "And… You were right, Soos. Even after everything, Schmabel still loved me. She still loved the Frunkle Stan who went on adventures with them through thick and thin, who gave them a home inside of the Curiosity Hut, and who helped them make memories in this small town during the summer. She loved the kind of man I was before I… leaped off a slippery slope."

He placed a palm on his forehead, as another sigh escaped his lips.

"I… I really screwed things up. I tried to prove myself to the world by trying to make it big with the museum. I used every dirty trick in the book to get to that point, even going as far as scouring the whole land for the oddest creatures the world has ever seen and turning them into wax statues to be shown at the museum for a quick copper. Not caring that I basically turned the place into a horror house without considering that they might break out, which is what just happened with that thing behind me. I wasn't the man that the kids had gotten to know last summer. And I feel like an absolute jerk about it…"

"So… You're admitting that you messed up big time?" Gwendy said, as she was starting to feel hopeful after hearing what he said up to that point. "Then what're you gonna do now?"

"Gwendy, Soos," Stan spoke, exchanging brief glances with each of them. "Look… I did a lot of thinking and…"

A gust of hot air suddenly blowed from behind him, distracting him for a second.

"I said that I was going to ditch the museum, but now that I think about it more, I…"

Then came another puff of hot air.

"I just wanna say that I…"

Then came a third time.

"… Okay, what's the deal with this wind?! I mean, where's it coming from?!" he yelled, frustrated that he was interrupted by whatever was blowing behind him.

He turned himself around to see what was causing the blow of hot air and found nothing out of the ordinary. Except for the frozen head of the Gill-Behemoth, that is.

Suspecting that something was going on with it, he took a closer look at the creature by leaning in.

Suddenly, the hot air blew right at his face. He managed to deduce that it came from the Gill-Behemoth's nose.

"Heh! What do you know!" he chuckled as he leaned back straight. "This thing's still breathing even when it's all frozen in wax! Kinda impressive, with all things considered."

"No kidding?" Gwendy said as she decided to approach the frozen beast, curious to know if it was really breathing herself. "Huh. That's pretty weird. And kinda creepy if you think about it. I wonder if it's the same deal with all the monsters that got turned into wax statues."

"Yeah, I don't really bother thinking about the small details." Stan shrugged.

The frozen monster continued to blow hot air through its nose, though nobody was troubled anymore that it could still breath.

"Hah! Keep breathing, butterface!" said the amused Stan. "It's good that you can still breath and all, but you should ask yourself if it's better to live the rest of your life in wax or to die to stop yourself from thinking how you're basically trapped forever.

The Gill-Behemoth statue's only response was to keep exerting hot air, which was all it could do in its current state.

Everyone watched as Stan continued to laugh at the monster's unfortunate position.

But then, Polly noticed something was off. Upon closer inspection, she noticed that something was dripping from the statue, and she was pretty certain that it did not occur earlier. She became more afraid when it turned the drops of liquid that fell to the ground were of the same colour as the wax.

"Guys," Polly spoke out, gaining everyone's attention. "The wax is melting!"

Everyone all widened their eyes in shock, shifting their gazes towards the frozen beast to see exactly what she was talking about.

All the while that it was breathing out, the wax covering its body was starting to melt down. The outer layer of the wax had already started to drip from the body, and if things remained that way, the rest of the wax would melt off in the process.

Meaning the Gill-Behemoth would soon be free once more.

"Uh, what's happening?!" Frog Soos exclaimed, as he began to panic. "Why is the wax already melting?! There's not a source of fire or anything warm around here!"

"It's the monster's doing!" Hop Pop shouted, once he figured out what was causing it. "It's using its own breath to melt the wax around it! I think that's also how it got out the first time around!"

"Seriously?!" Stan said. "This sneaking, son of a…!"

"Stan, we need to throw more wax at it! Cover the nose completely!" Gwendy suggested. "You got some more of that stuff lying around?"

"That barrel was my last batch!" he replied. "I don't got anything else!"

"Then what are we supposed to do?!" Sprig asked.

"I think there's only one thing we can do!" Anne said, brandishing her sword at the frozen beast. "We have to take it down right now! Before it has the chance to break free!"

"But Gwendy said that its skin is, like, really strong!" Frog Soos reminded her. "I don't think blades can do anything against it!"

"What about using the catapult?" Polly proposed. "We'll put something really heavy on it, launch it at that thing and crush it! Nobody survives getting flattened!"

"But where can we find something that heavy?" Gwendy asked. "Even if we find something, I don't think we'll have time to get it ready before that monster gets outta there!"

"Ahhh! I don't like this! I really, really don't like this!" Frog Soos yelled, as he was nearly overcome by fear over the idea of fighting the monster head-on.

Stan looked as everyone was getting ready to confront the beast, with varying amount of uncertainty over their chance of victory. He shifted his gaze towards the petrified monster, noticing that it was starting to shake slowly, but surely.

"… You said his skin is flipping hard, right?" Stan asked for a reminder. "Well, it won't be when I peel it off!"

He quickly hopped on top of the monster's head, surprising everyone. He then sinked his fingers through the wax layer and gripped the scale underneath.

"Stan? What are trying to do?" Gwendy asked.

"What does it look like?! I'm giving you guys an opening!" Stan explained, as he started to pull on the skin. "Just shut up and let me do my thing!"

He gritted his teeth as he exerted as much strength as he could to pull the skin off, even as more wax was melting off the beast, and its body was shaking more and more.

Everyone watched him nervously, entrusting him with the task and hoping that he succeeds before it's too late.

Moments have passed since Stan kept pulling on the skin. Things became more tense when it seemed like not much progress was being done, and the Gill-Behemoth was almost at the point of breaking itself free.

"Stan!"

"What did I just say?! Shut your yap already!" he shouted at the others before he quickly switched his full attention back to the skin that he was trying to pull.

Noticeable cracks started to form around the wax layer. The monster began to move its mouth very slowly through the wax. It almost appeared like there was no time left.

"Listen here, you overgrown waste of space!" Stan yelled. "If you think that you're going to do whatever you want in Stony Gulch, then you got another thing coming! It's a big mistake of me to bring you in alive as a statue! I'm putting an end to it here and now! Besides…"

As he continued to pull the skin hard, the scale began to loosen.

"… I GOT KIDS COMING OVER TO VISIT!"

As he yelled out to the sky and exerted a burst of energy, he suddenly fell back from the beast's head. But not before he finally managed to rip off part of its skin, as it flew off in a distance.

"He did it! By frog, he actually did it!" Hop Pop yelled, shocked to see that Stan was successful.

"Anne! Now's your chance!" Sprig said.

Anne nodded before exchanging glances with Gwendy.

"You know, I could use your help with this! You in?" she asked.

"That's cool with me!" Gwendy smiled as she pulled out her hatchet. "Let's finish this!"

Anne and Gwendy both jumped towards the monster's head with their weapons raised high up. As they yelled out a battle cry, they plunged their blades deeply down into the exposed head.

The Gill-Behemoth reacted by screaming to the skies above, breaking off the wax that it was encased in and lifted itself off the ground, shaking off the two girls from its head. It continued to cry out in anguish as loudly as it could, giving everyone the impression that the finishing blow did not do enough.

It suddenly stopped crying and remained still for a moment. Then, it fell to the side and crashed down to the earth. There, it remained motionless.

Everyone observed the body closely, waiting to see if it was going to jump where they least expected it. But after enough time had passed, it had not moved an inch.

The Gill-Behemoth has been vanquished.

"It's… It's really over, right?" Frog Soos asked, still a bit skeptical over the outcome.

"I think so." Anne nodded. "Definitely got a sword and hatchet in its brain and everything."

Frog Soos let out a sigh of relief, as he fell on his behind once he was allowed to relax at last. Everyone else followed suit in easing their tensed spirits.

"Geez! That thing is a real piece of work, having us work our butts off just so it wouldn't bother us no more…" Stan said.

He slipped his hand inside one of his pockets, only to find that whatever he kept inside was missing. He tried searching his other pockets and even looking around himself in search for that item, but he had found zilch.

"Darn it, where did I drop that blasted thing…"

Gwendy watched their former boss searching profusely around himself, as she was left wondering what it was that he was looking for. Then, when she looked down on the ground, she noticed a letter lying next to her feet.

She picked up the letter in her hand and looked around it, wondering if that was the item that Stan was trying to find. She recalled him saying that Schmabel wrote him a letter back there, so she was curious to see what was inside of it.

She opened the letter up and read the first written line. She widened her eyes when she recognized the handwriting.

Only, it was not Schmabel's handwriting.

It was Flipper's. Meaning he wrote that letter addressing to Stan.

The letter got her full attention, as it was the first time that they got anything from Flipper for months. She started reading it with the intent of going through everything.

Dear Frunkle Stan,

It's been almost a year since we last talked to each other, right? How have you been doing? Up to your usual schemes of pulling tourists and squeezing them dry of their money again? I'm only half-joking, of course… Well, knowing you, you're probably doing exactly that. It's still a wonder how you manage to get away with it without them being none the wiser. But if I have to think about how many crimes that you've committed so far, I'm gonna be at this all day. So let's just get to the point of this letter.

Sorry that Schmabel and I haven't contacted you for a while. We've been pretty busy with school and stuff. You wouldn't believe how much homework they have us do almost everyday. I mean, I've been handling it just fine on my own, but Schmabel kinda needed my help with it, since her head is always in the clouds and everything. It's exhausting… But I'll do anything for my twin sister.

But lately, something has been on the back of my mind. Maybe it's been there ever since we got back home and returned to our usual lives. Living with our parents, going to school, doing stuff that we usual do for most of our lives… All of it feels normal. But not weird normal.

Honestly, I don't know if we like it that much.

Every once in a while, I think back to our time at Stony Gulch, where a lot of things happened in over two months. We went through a lot of adventures together, solved mysteries thought to be unsolvable, made a lot of great friends and met a whole bunch of people. Everything about Stony Gulch is weird. But… We feel right at home, somehow.

Frunkle Stan… Schmabel missed you a lot. The same goes for me too, kinda. We missed you, Frog Soos, Gwendy, and a lot more people in Stony Gulch. I don't think we've ever felt this way about our own home, except for our parents. Stony Gulch felt like a second home to us. And… Schmabel and I want to go back.

And that's exactly what we're planning to do. To go visit you guys again this summer.

At first, our parents weren't really onboard with the idea, since the only reason why they sent us there in the first place is because they couldn't find anybody to watch over us for the summer. But we managed to convince them to let us go back there. We wouldn't have done it without Frunkle Ford's help.

Frunkle Stan… I was able to get Ford to tell us everything that happened between you two years ago. While it really sucks that you messed up Ford's chance at going to his dream school, I know that you didn't mean any harm. Not the Stan we got to know, anyway. You two were butting heads almost all of the time that we've seen you, but I get the feeling that you really want to reconnect after not seeing each other for so long. It's just that you were so caught up in the past that your emotions got the better of you and you assumed the worst of each other. I like to think that you want to start things over with Frunkle Ford.

In fact, I managed to get through to him after I told him all of the times that you helped us and took care of us like we're your own kids during our stay. Ford admitted that he thought about starting things over with you when he visited Stony Gulch, but he didn't understand or consider what you've been going through. And now that I told him stories of our adventures together, he realized that he's also at fault for things escalating between you two. He promised us that when we go back to Stony Gulch this summer, the next time he sees you, he'll do his best to bury the hatchet together with you. I just hope that you feel the same way and do the same. After all, you two are twins and should be best friends who watch each other's backs. Just like me and Schmabel.

We are going to see you again. And when we do, you better make an exception and throw us an expensive party at the Curiosity Hut. Just kidding. You're too cheap to be doing all of that for us. Unless you really are going to make an exception this time…?

Anyway, Schmabel and I are looking forward to see everyone again. Especially you, Frunkle Stan. So until then, keep being the cheap, law-breaking, money-laundering Frog Uncle Stan who loves his family a whole lot. See you soon!

From your great nephew,

Flipper

"Hey, have you guys seen a letter somewhere around here?" Stan asked, giving up on trying to find the item on his own. "Pretty sure I had it with me when I got to this place, now I just need to figure out where…"

He trailed off when he noticed that Gwendy was holding a letter in her hands, looking like she was moved and full of complex emotions. It did not take him a second to know what she was reading.

"Stan," she spoke, moving her face up to look at the eyepatch-wearing frog. "When did you get this?"

"You, uh… You read all of that, did you?" Stan scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "I was kinda hoping to keep it a surprise and all. You know, for maximum shock value."

"What are you guys talking about?" Frog Soos asked, switching his gaze between Stan and Gwendy.

"Soos… Flipper and Schmabel are coming back!" Gwendy informed him, unable to prevent herself from smiling. "They're coming to visit this summer!"

"R-really?! You're not pulling a fast one on me, are you?!" Frog Soos said with a bit of skepticism on the idea.

Gwendy responded by shaking her head, still showing a sincere smile.

Frog Soos turned his attention to their former boss. "A-and you knew about it? Since when?"

"I got the letter a while back, when that thing was trashing the museum." Stan replied. "And I was just as surprised as you two when I read it myself. It… It almost felt like a fever dream."

He raised his head up as he looked to the sky.

"The kids still love me. They love you guys too, and a bunch of others. They like their time here so much that they both planned on coming back here during this year's summer break, exactly like last time. They were even able to convince my brother to give us another chance. It's like I really meant something to them…"

He turned himself around so that his back was facing the group.

"But the thing is… They love the Stan Ponds who took care of them all of last summer. Not the Stan Ponds who… crossed the ethical lines too many times, including putting innocent tourists in peril for an insane goal. If they see me now… They'll be disappointed big time."

"Stan…"

"… But until they come back in town in a few months," Stan said as he turned back towards the others, his face full of determination. "I'll have plenty of time to go back to being the man that I was before. It's time to say goodbye to the immorally corrupt Mr. Oddity, the monster poacher and wax maker."

He took a decisive step forward.

"From here on out, Mr. Oddity, master of all things odd and founder of the Curiosity Hut, is back in business!" he declared. "If anyone has a problem with it, I'll gladly clock you right in your stupid face!"

Everyone reacted with surprise by Stan's declaration of turning over a new leaf.

But none had the same reaction as Soos who began to tear up.

"D… Does that mean what I think it means?" Frog Soos asked, eyes blurry with tears.

"If you're talking about me staying right here in Stony Gulch and taking care of the museum as usual, then you better bet that I'm-"

Stan got interrupted when he was suddenly pulled into a huge hug by the large frog who was crying his eyes out with joy.

"Mr. Poooonds! I knew that you'll come back to your senses! I just knew it!" Frog Soos sobbed, burying his face against Stan's shoulder and soaking it with his tears.

"Come on, Frog Soos! You're getting my suit wet with your tears and snot! And will it kill you not to crush me in your big arms?" Stan said as he tried to push himself off of the handyman.

Gwendy smiled fondly, as she walked towards the duo. She casually removed the fez hat from Frog Soos' head and placed it on Stan's instead, symbolizing the change of ownership of the Curiosity Hut.

"… Good to have you back, boss." she said.

"Heh! Don't get too full of yourselves." Stan smirked. "If you think I'm gonna give you a raise after everything we've been through tonight, think again!"

Gwendy chuckled. "It wouldn't be you otherwise, Stan."

Stan, Frog Soos and Gwendy continued to celebrate the return of the Curator that they know and love, while the Plantar family watched from the sidelines, having little idea of the huge history behind them.

"So… I guess that means it's all over, right?" Anne asked. "The monster's toast and the Curator becomes a good guy."

"It seems like it." Hop Pop replied. "Let's hope that the Curator turning over a new leaf is truly genuine, for that nice cashier and handyman's sake."

"I'm with you on that, Hop Pop. But seriously, tonight was horrible! I'm just glad that it's over and done with!" Polly said before she yawned due to the lack of sleep.

She took the time to look around themselves and noticed that they were one person short in the group.

"Uh, fam? Do you know where Sprig went?"

Once Anne and Hop Pop realized that Sprig was not among the group, even though he was there a moment ago, the whole family looked around to see where he has gone, worried that he might have gotten himself into trouble under their noses.

"Over here, guys!"

They all heard the boy's voice and turned their attention to the direction of his voice.

Sprig was walking towards them from a short distance, still looking relatively fine barring the black eye. The big difference was that he was carrying a large, triangular object in his hands.

"Sprig! What're you been up to?" Anne asked, her gaze drawn towards the material that he was holding. "And what's that?"

"This?" Sprig lifted the object up to give his family a better look at it. "It's the Gill-Behemoth's Scale. You know, the one that the Curator ripped off minutes ago."

"Oh, so that's the monster's scale!" Hop Pop said as he approached the object in question and examined it. "Yep. Looking at it closely, I can safely assume that it really did came from that monster. No doubt about it."

"Didn't you say that it's one of the ingredients for your cure?" Polly asked for a reminder.

"That's right." Sprig nodded in confirmation. "I didn't think we can get its scale, since we were dealing with such a huge monster. But it's thanks to everyone's help that we got it, without having to compromise."

"Well, tonight has been quite an event in terms of our progression towards our objectives." Hop Pop summed up their situation. "The take-back is that we might get horrible nightmares of this event for who knows how many nights."

Anne moved closer to the human boy, placing a welcoming hand on his shoulder.

"How are you feeling, buddy?" she asked. "Think that you turning back into a frog is becoming less of a pipe dream than before?"

"Yeah, I think so." Sprig nodded. "We just need to find the five other ingredients somewhere around the world. I'm not gonna stop until we find them all."

"And I'll be with you every step of the way, Sprig. You can count on me."

Sprig and Anne both smiled at one another before looking down at the Gill-Behemoth's scale.

They had taken another step towards turning the boy back to normal.


Since the beginning of the new day, the townsfolk had been talking amongst themselves over the disturbances that occurred overnight. There were reports of monstrous cries being heard more than once, the ground shaking in a few instances, and loud smashing sounds on top of everything.

The town gate was also destroyed, proving that something big had happened while everyone was asleep. Not only that, but the Curiosity Hut had a noticeably large hole on the roof, which led the townsfolk to believe that the museum, or at least the Curator, was somehow involved.

Frog Soos tried his best to deflect the people's suspicions off of the museum, claiming that they were working on a new tourist attraction that had gone awry, involving boomshrooms and the like. The authorities were not easily convinced, but if Frog Soos learned anything from his boss, it was that bribing money or food would be enough to win their trust. It also helped that the local cops were incompetent buffoons.

Meanwhile, the Plantar family were getting ready to depart from the town and continue their trek to Newtopia.

"Okay, kids! Are we all set and ready to go?" Hop Pop asked once he had readjusted the saddle on Bessie.

"I'm good here, Hop Pop!" Anne said as she leaned out from the side door and gave the elderly frog a thumbs-up. "Just trying to make sure that Polly doesn't get bothered in her sleep!"

"I'm good too!" Sprig said as he emerged out from the ceiling hatch of the fwagon. "Everything's all resupplied! It should be enough to last us the rest of the trip!"

"Perfect! Then let's get a move on!"

Hop Pop was about to hop onto the driver's seat, when he heard a familiar feminine voice calling out to them.

"Yo! You guys leaving already?"

Anne, Sprig and Hop Pop all turned their heads to see two people approaching them from the broken town gate. The voice belonged to Gwendy, who was accompanied by Stan and Frog Soos. The three Plantars got off the fwagon to meet up with the Curator and his two employees.

"Come on! At least stick around until lunch time!" Stan said with his hands on his hips. "We'll grab a bite at Greasy's Diner. Heck, I'll even pay for the food, if that's what it takes for you to stay for a little while longer! Seriously, this is a once-in-a-lifetime offer I'm giving you here."

"I'm sorry, but we'll have to decline on that kind offer." Hop Pop said. "I feel like we overstayed our welcome here. Not to mention, if Polly wakes up and sees that we haven't left yet, she's going to blow a fuse and destroy everything around her. And believe me, you do not want her to be angry."

"Sheesh! You make her sound like she's a tornado of mayhem." Stan noted. "Wasn't she a frightened, little baby girl when you first stepped into the museum?"

"Oh my granddaughter is quite the complex person, Mr. Curator."

"Welp! Since you're all eager to leave, we'll just leave you to it! So long, you country folks!"

Stan was about to turn around and walk away, when Gwendy nudged him in the back, giving him a judgmental look.

"Come on, Stan. Just give it to them straight." she said. "We're not leaving until you give them what they're looking for in the first place."

Stan groaned. "Do I have to? You know how I feel about giving stuff away for free. Why do they get something while I get nothing in return?"

"You're not getting nothing, Mr. Ponds." Frog Soos corrected him. "You get the satisfaction of doing a good deed for people in need."

"I'm talking about materialistic value, Soos!"

"I'd say it's a good deal to make up for trying to murder an innocent person." Gwendy shared her thoughts on it.

"Wow. You're just gonna hang this over my head for while, huh?"

"You tell me." she nonchalantly shrugged.

Stan let out another groaned before he resigned to the deal that he begrudgingly agreed to.

"Hey, superstar!"

"Uh, you talking to me?" Anne asked, pointing at herself.

"Yeah, I am. Come over here for a second."

Anne raised an eyebrow at whatever the Curator was planning. She looked at Sprig and Hop Pop to see what they think about it. The boy and the elderly frog were as unsure as her, but they beckoned her to proceed.

She paced herself towards the fez-wearing frog, stopping as soon as she was about a feet away from him.

Stan rubbed the back of his neck bashfully. "Look. This isn't enough to make up for the trouble that I caused to you folks, but… Here."

He pulled out something from behind and showed it to the human girl.

Anne gasped, as she recognized the object resting in his hands.

"The Skipman?!" she exclaimed. "Wait, you're really giving this to me?"

"Sure. The whole reason why you got into our mess in the first place was because of this, right? It's the least that I can do to make it up to you. So… Just take it."

Anne stared down at the old portable player, as she could not believe that it was within arm's reach with no strings attached. She slowly took the Skipman from Stan's hands and was overcome with a sense of nostalgia.

She used to play around with her parents' music player back when she was little, fiddling with the buttons and listening to whatever CD that she put in there. Not to mention the few times that she blinded herself with the built-in laser.

For a brief moment, she felt like she was home. She was content enough with it to make this trip worthwhile.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Ponds." Anne expressed her sincere gratitude. "You have no idea how much this means to me."

"Yeah, well, don't mention it." Stan said.

Sprig stepped in. "So on the topic of the Skipman, where did you get it anyway? You don't really find something like this anywhere, right?"

"I think Mr. Ponds found it when he came across a supply caravan." Frog Soos replied.

"A caravan?"

"Yeah, funny story about this one." Stan spoke, recalling how he got his hands on the artifact in question. "When I was on one of expeditions to find the oddest creatures in Amphibia, I crossed paths with a few caravans. One of them was carrying a stash of oddly interesting goods. So I decided to borrow a few of them-"

"He means he looted them." Gwendy clarified.

"-and brought them back home to put them up for display. If I have my facts checked, the supply caravan looked like it came from Newtopia, considering the symbols on their armour and flags and such."

The Plantars all gasped in surprise by the information that Stan was giving to them.

"You're saying that this came from Newtopia?" Anne asked, receiving a nod from the Curator as a confirmation. "That means we're on the right track! Newtopia really does have something that'll help me get back home!"

"All the more reason why we should get there as soon as possible." Hop Pop said.

"Thanks for the info, Mr. Curator." Sprig said, as he approached the group and stood next to Anne. "This is gonna help Anne a lot, knowing where the Skipman come from."

"I dunno how that's supposed to help, but whatever you say, kiddo."

The orange-haired boy then remembered something. He pulled out the grappling hook from behind and handed it to the museum people.

"Oh, uh… I borrowed this when we were trying to deal with the Gill-Behemoth." he explained himself. "You can have this back."

"Oho! I actually get something in return?" Stan said, his mood improving. "I mean, it ain't much, but I'll take what I can get!"

He was about to take the object from the boy's hands, when Gwendy suddenly moved an arm in front of him.

"Whoa there, dude! I think we should let him keep it." she suggested.

"What?! Are you kidding me?!" Stan shouted, glaring at his cashier incredulously. "I already gave away one thing for free, and you're telling me to do it again?! I'm running a business around here, you know!"

"I still think it's a good deal to make up for dragging them into your frogspit in the first place."

Stan audibly winced at Gwendy's comment, not appreciating that she kept using his actions to justify giving stuff away for free.

"Grrr…! Fine! Just keep the dang thing, kiddo!" he submitted to the pressure, crossing his arms in irritation. "But this is the last thing that I'm handing things out for free! You're gonna have to pay, if you want something else outta me!"

"Really? Are you sure that I can keep it?" Sprig asked with uncertainty.

"Pretty sure." Gwendy replied. "From how you were using it, I'd say you had a knack for it. So why not keeping it in the long run?"

Sprig looked at the tool in his hand. While he intended to return the grappling hook, since the only reason he had it was because it was closest thing to a weapon that he could use against the monster, when he thought about the times that he used it, intentional or not, he remarked how he was able to shoot it and grip onto high places, as well as zip through the air by just pulling the trigger.

In fact, it was not so dissimilar to how he could launch his tongue out, grab hold of things and zip through in the process, back when he was a frog.

His uncertainty diminished, as he gladly put away the grappling hook on his person.

"Thanks, Gwendy. I'll keep it to good use." he said with a smile.

"Uh, wait a sec." Anne said, as a thought came into mind regarding a loose end in the whole situation. "What are you guys gonna do with the other monster statues? If the Gill-Behemoth can break itself out of there one way, wouldn't it be bad if the same thing happens with the others?"

"Don't you worry about it, dude." Frog Soos reassured her. "I already put the statues away in a secret storage room deep inside of the museum, under Mr. Ponds' orders."

"So you're not gonna set them free, back to their homes or something?"

"What, and waste the opportunity to sell them for big money? Fat chance!" Stan chuckled to himself. "I'll just wait until an unsuspecting snob comes into town so I can get them to buy the statues off of me. And if the monsters do end up breaking themselves free, at least they'll rip apart the guy who bought them!"

"Wow. That's morbid as heck…"

"Uh, we'll figure out how to get rid of them safely." Gwendy said, offering a peaceful solution to the wax statue problem. "You just focus on getting to where you need to be."

"Okay. We will." Sprig nodded. "A lot happened over the course of a single day. But all I want to say is that I'm glad that we got to know you guys. It's been pretty fun."

"The feeling is mutual, dude." Frog Soos stated. "I dunno what would happen if you guys hadn't shown up, and I'm scared to think about it. So really, I wanna thank you dudes for being here when we really need it."

"We're happy to help, Frog Soos. Thanks for your support too." Anne smiled.

"High five!" Frog Soos shouted as he raised both of his hands up. The two humans both clapped the hand closest to them with a satisfying sound. "Yes!"

"Don't be a stranger to stop by the town from time to time, dudes." Gwendy said.

"Oh we'll definitely pay you guys a visit." Anne said. "And who knows? Maybe we'll finally get to meet Flipper and Schmabel in person, if the time is right. I'm already looking forward to it."

Gwendy smiled. "Haha! Same here. You'll love them, no doubt about it."

Once they have exchanged all that they wanted to say to one another, the time for departure was at hand.

"Come on, kids! It's time for us to go." Hop Pop said as he jumped onto the driver's seat of the fwagon.

"Got it, Hop Pop!" Sprig said before he turned his attention back to Stan, Frog Soos and Gwendy. "It was really nice knowing you all! 'Till next time!"

"Bye, Gwendy! Bye, Soos! See you all next time!" Anne said as she waved the group goodbye while she and Sprig were walking inside of the fwagon.

Gwendy and Frog Soos both waved them farewell as well, thanking them for being there at a crucial moment for the whole team.

Once everyone had climbed inside of the fwagon, Hop Pop snapped the reins, as Bessie began to pull the fwagon and they all departed towards their destination, leaving the museum workers behind to continue their quest.

Gwendy and Frog Soos continued to wave goodbye at them until they could no longer see them through the dense trees.

"Heh. They're a handful little bunch, aren't they?" Stan commented. "Well, now that they're gone, it's about time that we get to work on the Curiosity Hut! We're bringing back its former glory before I went and screwed things up! Are you with me, Gwendy, Soos?"

"I'm always here to help, Mr. Ponds." Frog Soos said.

"You can count on me to bring back what's fun about it, Stan." Gwendy said.

"Right! Then let's get to work!" Stan declared as he turned towards the direction of the museum. "First, we need to fix the hole in the roof! You know what to do, Soos!"

"You got it, dude! I wouldn't be much of a handyman if I don't fix anything!"

Stan and Frog Soos both marched towards the hut to begin their work on renovating it to be a better place for everyone, for both tourists and local townsfolk.

As she watched them begin their work, Gwendy could only smile, as everything seemed to have gone back to normal, back to when things were simple and not incredibly heavy.

Perhaps normal was not the right word for it. Stony Gulch was always weird to begin with. But it was the kind of weird that made it a very special place where they encounter new friends and family. Meeting the Plantar family was one example of that fact.

And meeting Flipper and Schmabel was another notable example.

Gwendy pulled out a cap with an image of a pine tree imprinted on it. The cap belonged to Flipper, who wore it almost the entirety of last summer. And he gave it to Gwendy as something to remember him by.

She smiled fondly at the cap.

"Flipper… Schmabel… I can't wait for you guys to come back to Stony Gulch."

She proceeded to wear the cap proudly on her head, before she began to follow her boss and fellow coworker back to the museum.

"And when you guys do come back… It'll be like you never left it in the first place."

End of Chapter


Hey, everyone. HiddenKurogawa here to share with you guys a few things related to the creation of this chapter.

I didn't expect it to last this long, but the Gravity Falls crossover arc is finally over. And the final chapter of the arc is the longest one that I've wrote so far in this story, with about 14000 words written. I'm kinda impressed that I wrote this much for a single chapter. Then again, maybe if I trim the fat a bit if I look over it careful, it'll probably be a bit shorter than it actually is. Regardless, this is my longest chapter yet, and not only is this arc the longest, but it is also the one that I was looking forward to write the most, among others. That could explain a lot.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed it, even when there are a few things about it that I could have done better. Next chapter, we'll finally get to the introduction of a certain character. It might be another while before I update the story, so I hope you'll stick around.

That's all from me. As always, feel free to comment, criticize, follow and/or fave this story, though I would appreciate these very much. Until next time.